Analysis: At CTIA, Microsoft Wins

The one thing that brought together many of the new handsets and much of the new software PC Magazine's Sascha Segan saw at the CTIA show this week was a love of Windows Mobile.

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Steve Ballmer has a posse.

In San Francisco, home of alternative culture, I was surprised not to see that slogan on stickers all over the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference this year. The one thing that brought many of the new handsets and much of the new software I saw at the show together was a love of Windows Mobile.

The flashiest new phones at this show were four Windows Mobile handsets from i-Mate, all with XGA video out and two with AT&T's new HSUPA system for high-speed uploads. The most mainstream new app was an . But it wasn't just about what was out on the floor. Several handset manufacturers were using Wireless IT for whispering campaigns about things coming up, that we might see in the next few weeks. More often than not, those things ran Windows Mobile.

At a show devoted to business and entertainment, there was more action from the business side. Microsoft had Blackberry maker RIM squarely in their sights when Steve Ballmer announced the hideously-named Windows Mobile Device Center 2008 for Windows Mobile, which basically brings the manageability of WM devices up to Blackberry levels for big IT departments.

Microsoft even managed to take some wind out of RIM's big announcement at the show. As Microsoft worked to lock up the corporate market, RIM went for a little cool, with a Facebook client for Blackberries announced on the main stage on Tuesday. It's sleek and elegant, and makes an interesting social statement. The new T-Mobile Sidekicks come with a MySpace client, but Blackberries use Facebook. Draw your own conclusions. The next day, Microsoft dropped a $240 million investment in Facebook. All roads lead to Redmond.

RIM worked to provide an alternative, but the presence of some of Microsoft's competitors only reminded convention-goers of how powerful Microsoft is. Palm was primarily showing and talking about the Treo 750v and 500v  their Microsoft Windows Mobile products. Symbian had a booth showing a bunch of Japanese phones with seemingly little relevance to the U.S. audience. And at a basement round-table, Motorola and Sony Ericsson execs were unable to quite explain why they couldn't release a single phone with their UIQ operating system in North America.

At the entertainment side of the house, there was a lot less going on, perhaps because the industry seemed to be trying to pretend Apple doesn't exist. Not only was Apple not even taking any meetings the week of the show, on site or off (never mind exhibiting), the show floor seemed curiously free of clear, coherent iPhone responses.

There were two panels discussing the iPhone; at the main one, handset manufacturers blamed wireless carrier conservatism for lack of UI innovation on US phones. Verizon execs at the show had the best iPhone response: they whipped out the upcoming LG Voyager, which is as close to an iPhone killer as anyone's shown in the past few months.

Even the iPhone's friends weren't talking about the iPhone: AT&T's big announcement was that they're selling overpriced songs from Napster, for double the price of iTunes songs, on a limited number of handsets. When I asked various industry luminaries about their reactions to the iPhone, they generally smiled and mumbled some platitudes about the iPhone's tidal wave lifting all boats.

Does social networking count as entertainment? Because there were a slew of new, tiny mobile social networking and mobile-blogging companies running across the floor like a flood of mice. I have no idea how to assess these firms. All of their products require the usual critical mass of people joining before they get interesting, or they're methods by which you can post using your phone to popular blogging services.

Mobile gaming also seemed to be stuck in a bit of a rut. A small company, Vollee, showed me an incredibly cool new technology by which they stream full-scale PC games to mobile handsets, giving games on those phones what appear to be impossible graphics and sound quality. But at a mobile gaming panel I moderated, gaming manufacturers and publishers struggled with getting to the next level: not only how to create great games that truly reflect the unique capabilities of phones, like connectivity and GPS, but how to convince mobile users that they want those games. Guitar Hero Mobile seemed to be the one potential breakout hit being shown off.

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So we're back to the old PC war, being played out in the mobile space. Microsoft is making a strong play for businesses, while Apple has consumers' imaginations firmly in hand  while those consumers, by and large, buy products that are much cheaper than Apple's.

Will Microsoft's strong showing at CTIA translate into a stronger position in mobile users' pockets than they have today, when Windows Mobile smart phones are only a one-digit sliver of the wireless market as a whole? We'll check back at the next CTIA show, in April 2008.

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed...
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